Gender Swapped Fairy Tales

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Gender Swapped Fairy Tales (Hardback) by Jonathan Plackett

If I’m finding a working mother more distracting than a magic hen or a talking mole, I have more work to do pulling the copper wire of princessdom from my brain. ‘I’ll be giving Gender Swapped Fairy Tales to every child I can come Christmas’ (Photo: Karrie Fransman) Jonathan and Karrie (husband and wife) have a daughter whom they wanted “to grow up in a world where little girls can be powerful and where little boys can express their vulnerability without anger.” Karrie ponders “can we not also imagine a world where kings want kids and where old women aren’t witches?” Imagine a world where seductive male sirens lure brave heroines to their death, where Icara and her mother fly too close to the sun, and where beautiful men are forced to wed underworld queens…The world’s Snow Whites and Sleeping Beauties remain some of the first stories our children absorb (Photo: Karrie Fransman) Imagine a world where princesses in shining armour race to rescue their sleeping princes, kings sit by the window sewing and longing for a child and kind-hearted men are rewarded for looking past the flaws of beastly princesses. Rather less cheerful is how Gender Swapped Fairy Tales casts unforgiving light on the darkness we have all imbibed from the originals. Hundreds of years after they were committed to paper, the world’s Snow Whites and Sleeping Beauties remain some of the first stories our children absorb, along with their “lessons” (femininity = pretty, obedient, 90 per cent trapped/asleep). The illustrations by Karrie Fransman, boldly coloured in watercolour and ink, are full of rich detail, like a beautiful gown adorned with jewels and embroidered embellishments. Karrie researched classical paintings of illustrated fairy tales, and used the references as a starting point, “I then began to draw my own gender-swapped versions, paying attention to the new power balance in each image.”

Gender Swapped Fairy Tales – review – The AOI Gender Swapped Fairy Tales – review – The AOI

In an age where gender stereotypes are now often being challenged, the authors’ retelling is a welcome collection. When I read the first story, “Handsome and the Beast,” the genders of the characters feel inconsequential at first, until I come to the jobs given to the sons and daughters. The sons are now servants doing housework, and the daughters are working out in the field, which makes one aware of how gender is constructed. While the story is different from the well-known animated version with a singing teapot and dancing candelabra, the genders feel interchangeable – their changes don’t take away from the story’s message of not judging someone by their physical appearance. People have been telling fairy tales to their children for hundreds of years. And for almost as long, people have been rewriting those fairy tales – to help their children imagine a world where they are the heroes. Karrie and Jon were reading their child these stories when they hit upon a dilemma, something previous versions of these stories were missing, and so they decided to make one vital change.. They haven’t rewritten the stories in this book. They haven’t reimagined endings, or reinvented characters. What they have done is switch all the genders. It might not sound like that much of a change, but you’ll be dazzled by the world this swap creates – and amazed by the new characters you’re about to discover.’

20th February 2023